


come back and haunt me

by softambrollins



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Phone Calls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 10:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13269135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softambrollins/pseuds/softambrollins
Summary: They don't talk about any one thing in particular. It's just — keeping him close. Making sure he knows he's not alone. Sometimes, Roman pops in and they both Facetime him and laugh about the stupidest things, the way they always do. But most of the time, it's just this: Seth lying on his bed, eyes closed, listening to Dean's voice. It doesn't even feel like he's so far away, in the middle of the night, when it's so quiet. Dean's almost the only thing that feels real.A few weeks after Dean's injury, Seth says something on the phone that he probably shouldn't have.





	come back and haunt me

It's become a routine. Another routine. It's still amazing to him that he and Dean have _routines_ again. They have a routine for before matches, and they have a routine when they're on the road, and now, they have this: Seth getting food after leaving the arena, getting to the hotel, utterly exhausted, bones and muscles aching, but always calling Dean before he passes out.

They don't talk about any one thing in particular. It's just — keeping him close. Making sure he knows he's not alone. Sometimes, Roman pops in and they both Facetime him and laugh about the stupidest things, the way they always do. But most of the time, it's just this: Seth lying on his bed, eyes closed, listening to Dean's voice. It doesn't even feel like he's so far away, in the middle of the night, when it's so quiet. Dean's almost the only thing that feels real.

It's a Friday night and the week's been a long one and Seth's as tired as he's ever felt after a show. He almost decides to skip tonight and call him in the morning, but it's — it's routine. It's _theirs_. 

He doesn't say much, but that's not what these calls are about. Dean's talking about some new show on the Discovery channel he's been obsessed with lately and Seth's just humming in acknowledgment, feeling like soon he won't have the strength to hold the phone up to his ear anymore. Or to keep his eyelids open.

And it's then, when he's about to say _I miss you, man_ before he says goodbye, like he always does (Dean had made fun of him for it the first few times, but now he just goes all quiet and says, "Yeah, me too," in a gentle voice that's surprising every time), it comes out _all wrong_.

Dean goes quiet — but it's more like stunned silence this time.

When he realises what he actually said, it pretty much jolts him wide awake again.

_Oh. Shit._

"Um," Dean starts, and God, it's so awkward — and it's _never_ been awkward. And Seth's ruined it. Of course he has. He's a fucking idiot.

"I didn't mean —" Seth says quickly. "I mean, it's not that I didn't —" _Fuck._ He's making it worse.

Seth just hears Dean release an audible breath.

"I didn't mean to say that," Seth finishes weakly.

"Oh, okay —" Dean says, sounding faint, strange, distant for the first time. And he _hates_ it.

" _No_ , Dean —" He shuts his eyes tightly for a second, before summoning all the courage in his body. "I _meant_ ," he says as firmly as he can manage. "I didn't want to say it like _that_."

"What do you mean, not like _this_?" Dean asks, sounding uncertain.

"Over the phone," Seth breathes out. "When you're a thousand miles away. And I'm fucking exhausted and it's the middle of the night and —"

" _Oh_ ," Dean says.

"Can we just forget about it?" Seth says, almost pleading. "I'm sorry. Everything's really messed-up right now —"

"If that's what you want," Dean says bluntly.

 _No, that's not what I want_ , he wants to say. _I wish you were here. I wish I could tell you everything. Even if it fucks everything up. I just want to see the look on your face when I say it over and over again —_

"I'll, uh, I'll talk to you soon, okay?" he says shakily.

"Okay," is all Dean responds. "I'll see you."

Seth hangs up his phone, rests it on the nightstand, then rolls over and buries his face in his pillow and tries not to scream in frustration.

*

It's two weeks later at RAW 25 when there's a knock on his locker room door. He thinks it's probably Roman, or Jason, or one of the crew. He's definitely not expecting to pull it open and find Dean fucking Ambrose looking back at him.

He looks good, he looks like he did when he came back to RAW last April. It always takes him by surprise, the feeling of seeing Dean for the first time after being apart for a while. He looks _beautiful_ , almost painfully so.

He's talked to him a couple times since...the _incident_ , and it wasn't weird or anything. He'd figured they both just decided to leave it alone, to forget it ever happened. But now he's standing in front of him. And it can't be a coincidence.

"What — what are you doing here?" he says, blinking at him like he's a ghost or something. Like he's not sure if this is real or some kind of trick of his eyes.

Dean looks amused. Seth knows by now that there's nothing Dean loves more than catching him off-guard. "Was in the area," he says casually.

Seth just stares at him, eyebrows raised.

"Okay, fine, I came to see you. Stop being dramatic, man. Jeez." He rolls his eyes, shoves his left hand into his jacket pocket — his right arm's still bandaged and braced — his gaze falling to the floor.

"So, you're...okay?" Seth asks, still unsure.

"I'm good. Rehab's not exactly a weekend in Tijuana, but it's not as bad as it could've been." He shrugs.

"Okay," Seth says, trying to process everything. "And you came here...to see me?"

Dean just glances up for a second, nods.

"Why?"

"You _know_ why," Dean says, looking him straight in the eye now, making him feel way too exposed.

"No, I _don't_ ," Seth protests.

"You said you didn't want to say it when I wasn't actually _here_ , so here I am," he says, gesturing to himself.

" _Dean_ —" Seth exhales, almost a warning, unconsciously shifting his body away from Dean.

"Hey, it's okay," Dean says, tenderly, his gaze softer now. He takes a step forward and gently takes Seth's hand in his own, lifts it up to press his palm against his own chest. "It's okay. It's just me."

Seth huffs a laugh at that. "That's exactly why it's so hard. Because it's _you_."

Dean seems a bit flustered by that, for the first time, eyes narrowing at him almost disbelievingly. He drops Seth's hand, but reaches up instead, rests his fingers against Seth's cheek, lightly touches his thumb to his bottom lip.

Seth feels a hitch in his breath. He wonders if all of this has just been the best, most realistic dream of his entire life.

"Tell me," Dean says intently.

"What?" Seth says, feeling trapped by his eyes, feeling light-headed from the contact and Dean's proximity, forgetting everything else around them.

"Tell me what you said before," Dean says, sounding almost desperate now.

Seth looks him right in the eyes before saying, soft and breathy, "I love you." 

Dean's lips curve into the slightest smile. He leans forward to rest his forehead against Seth's.

"Say it again."

"I _love_ you —" Seth repeats at once, and the last syllable is barely off his tongue before Dean's kissing him, swiftly and furiously, like he physically couldn't stop himself. Like this is all he's been wanting, all he's been thinking about. Like he flew a few hundred miles, elbow all banded up, in the dead of winter, probably feeling miserable the entire way, just for this. 

Seth's known for a while that he'd do anything for Dean. To have Dean. Even if it was just as his friend, as his partner. He'd been so terrified that wanting any more would just lead to more pain, for both of them. But somehow, he's always known that there's always been something else between them — something undeniable, something indefinable, something he's never been able to put into words until now. 

When they finally break for breath, Seth just stares at him again. "I can't believe you came all the way here. Does your doctor know? You should be resting —"

"Oh my god, are you serious right now?"

"What? I care about your well-being more than —"

"Sex?" Dean suggests, with _that_ smirk on his lips and _that_ mischievous glint in his eye, obviously knowing exactly what he's doing.

"What? No, I didn't —" He didn't know that sex was even on the table. _Is_ it on the table? Is that what Dean's saying? He's pretty sure it's not healthy to have this many life-altering crises back-to-back.

"You're adorable," Dean says, smiling, then kissing his cheek.

"Shut up," Seth says, pouting but going red at the same time.

"What if I told you that being here, being with you, is the best possible thing for my well-being right now?" Dean says, earnest and stupidly charming.

Seth sighs and then says, "Okay."

Dean drops a kiss on his forehead. He looks the happiest Seth's probably ever seen him. He's sure he has the biggest, dopiest grin on his own face. 

He wraps his arms around Dean's waist then, letting out a content sigh, buries his face in his shoulder, taking in the smell and the feel of him, the fact that he's here, right now, with him, that he loves Seth back the same way he does. He feels Dean exhale, and relax into his body, his fingers coming to rest in the hair at the nape of Seth's neck, gently cradling his head against him.

Seth lets go after what feels like a long time. He smiles up at Dean before taking his hand in his own again, pressing a kiss to the back of it before just loosely intertwining their fingers together between them.

"You know, when you said that — the first time — you, uh, you surprised me," Dean admits after a moment.

"Yeah? Really?" Seth asks, feeling utterly delighted and proud of himself. "Who's _predictable_ now, huh, Ambrose?"

"Shut up," Dean says this time, voice low, before pulling him close and into another deep, neverending kiss.


End file.
